I Love New York, But its No Time for a Marathon

I am a lifelong New Yorker – Born and bred in this great city. I love New York. I have never seen devastation like that which Hurricane Sandy has brought us – There isn’t anyone who doesn’t know someone who was affected in a major way by this catastrophe. This city is struggling and the effects of the Hurricane will be felt for a long time to come – many don’t have electricity, lost their homes and we are all feeling the effects.

The images the world sees of the city that never sleeps? Below 34th street is dark – no power or water. Subways are still far from functioning, and people are traveling hours to get to work. At 5WPR like many others, we are working from home – due to the crane teetering high above 57th Street due to the developers’ negligence we can’t enter our office temporarily. This city is tough – and will recover.

On that note, it’s an absolute Public Relations disaster to host a marathon this weekend as Mayor Bloomberg has said now NYC will. This is no time for a parade or a marathon – Should police and city resources be diverted in any way from getting life back to normal? Do we need traffic blocked at these times and our resources strained?

I am an athlete who runs nearly every day – and sport is indeed a needed distraction at times. But, now isn’t the time.

New York City is the greatest city in the world and will recover, but there are many obstacles we still need to overcome.

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Ronn is the CEO of 5WPR and author of best selling PR book, For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations, and a regular contributor to Fox News, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Insights Wired, Everything-PR and more.